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It's been a fun day around here… kids always make it fun! This is our Holiday Card this year… and um, no, they haven't gone postal yet… very, very soon though!

All A Muse… it's a 5.5×8.5 card with the letter printed on the inside and a photo our our photo in there too. LOTS of glitter.

Today is the last post of my 25 days of projects… I can't believe I made it through. Did you enjoy this series? Did you have a favorite? I hope that you did find something that was inspiring to you! Now, if I can just remember all of this next year ;). Let me know… I'm really interested in what, if anything, you found interesting!

The wonderfully talented Jenn Shurkus sent me a very cute Christmas card this year. In it was a picture of
her and Mr. Harley. I *totally* CASED her design and used it for these thank yous. I'm ahead of the game for thank yous! Behind on getting those stinky holiday cards done. Let's just say everything in my house has glitter on it. Sigh. Anyway, THANKS Jenn! I *love* snowflakes and she used the Marvy Snowflake punch to punch out the front of her card. I did the same, only I used the A Muse cabana blue cards and folded them with the blue on the inside.

I also used Julie's very cool trick on the
envelopes. I used A2 sized envelopes for these square cards but I punched out a "decoration" on through the envelope. I used the Martha Steward Collectible 2008 Snowflake Punch. Then I put a strip of acetate inside the envelope. I secured it to both sides of the inside with my adhesive. Now you can see right through the snowflake! Pretty slick, eh? I tell you, that Julie, she's mighty clever!

For whatever you are doing tomorrow, I wish you peace, happiness, love, laughter, and the possibility to make some beautiful memories.

I just *love* the way these turned out! Definitely will make this for the ornament exchange next year. I wanted to make this one for this year's but the die didn't come in time. I still needed to make some more ornaments. Every year, I give my boys and a nephew an ornament. I usually make them if I can think of something crafty. So, this year, these are it! And yes, I am covered in glitter! I let my boys pick which color glitter they wanted (green and purple!) and then red for my nephew.

No stamping on these but it did take a bit of *thinking* to figure out how to make it 3-d. The die is just the outside star and then the inside star. So, I ended up making 2 of each PER ornament. I have nylon thread in between the smaller star pieces and have it hanging from the bigger one. All glittered first, of course!

Okay, so I *almost* cheated on this entry. I almost came here to say that today's entry is our Holiday Letter. Well, we did get that done… at 1:30am last night. But the cheating part is that it's part of our Holiday cards. Um, which I'm still working on. Thought I could get them all done today but I couldn't. I tried to get them done before the 5pm mail but since I missed it, I decided to switch gears and LET GO … it's okay that my cards won't be done today (or tomorrow probably!). It is okay, really (see how I'm trying to convince myself???). You know, most of my relatives that I send to in India don't celebrate Christmas (big surprise, eh?) AND they usually don't get it for 3 weeks anyway. So, what's one more day (or two) going to matter ;)… Plus I think *most* of you aren't here reading blogs anymore and that you've started your celebrating! So, you won't mind either then… :D Rationalize, rationalize…

In any case, trying to get ahead of the game, this project was a team effort: my eldest and I. We made his thank yous today. I *always* wanted to make these… the kind they fill in. My window of opportunity for these kind of thank yous probably has passed since I made him write full thank yous for his b'day in June. But nonetheless, I made this for him and he stamped them. I let him pick ANY stamp he wanted in the entire studio. ANY! He picked A Muse's simple snowflake. He was in a quick, let's get it done mode. Oh well.

As an aside, our school (as I'm sure most do) has a particular handwriting style they teach the kids. I've been working with my son to *improve* his handwriting and finally decided to (with the bookmarks the other day) to buy the font that they use at the school. I am *so* happy I did this. I used that font on these thank yous. I figure the more he sees, it the more it will sink in. Probably not surprising to you but I was a penmanship NUT when I was little. I practiced ALL of the time. Probably why I learned Calligraphy at such a young age and did so many wedding invitations and such. Just LOVED the way things look in handwriting. I often change my handwriting just because I get bored. It's a shame that we don't write things as much anymore.

Anyway… 3 more days. The excitement around here is so fun! How is it at your house?

My neighbor has 2 daughters: a 9th grader and a 5th grader. In the past year, the 9th grader has become a BIG Longhorn fan. I mean, she knows all the stats for ALL of the players, etc. Doesn't miss a game, bleeds orange, the whole bit…

Whenever I find a young longhorn fan that I know personally, I can't help but foster that enthusiasm. It's not so much about the "football" team as it is that I really do believe The University of Texas has many great life experiences to offer. It was a good school for me, my brothers, my husband, his sister, etc. We all had
different experiences but such good ones that made us who were are today. I'm not saying other schools don't provide this. I'm just saying that this one did for us. So, in keeping with that idea, I wanted to make something for those girls *just* for fun. These were very quick but that's all they needed to be. I gave each of them a set of 10 cards with envelopes. I chose not to put a sentiment on there so that they could use it for Christmas cards to their friends or maybe even thank you notes. Do your kids write thank yous? I have one niece, she's 27 now, and STILL hand-writes these beautiful thank you notes. I need to tell my SIL good job for instilling that in her daughter!

The longhorn is made by Mark of Deadbeat Designs. THANKS MARK! And the santa hat is by A Muse. I did put liquid applique on the hat! The paper is by Stampin' Up! It's the natural white CS.

FOUR MORE DAYS… Are you still checking in or have your holidays started? Mine *officially* started Friday night with a party and I've been *partying* since I suppose. I have a few more projects to finish up (ok, start … like my holiday cards!!!) but in general, the mood around here is very calm and lots of good family time!

A while back, the very talented, Jennie Moczan posted this cool gift card holder on her blog. I totally love it and have cased it more than once. In fact, I cased it for an A Muse News Oldies but Goodies card recently seen here. Thanks Jennie! You totally rock!

I used that same card and layout for gift card holders for the teachers. Our classes (both boys) collected money from the class for a group gift. I made an extra one to give to my next door neighbor, who drives my oldest to school every day!
So quick and easy. And of course I had to use that sentiment… it's one of my favorites…

"On Comet, On Cupid, On Donner, and VISA!" HA! HA! HA! It's an A Muse sentiment from the Holiday Greetings II clear set. All the paper is from A Muse, as well and that saying goes so well with Holiday Shopper stamp.

My son's first grade class is a big "do work all day" (his words, not mine) kinda class. I thought it would be fun to make personalized bookmarks for all of the kids to help make reading fun. The real question: Stamp them or design them on the computer? Well, truth be told that I was running outta time. These were due Wednesday morning and as of the cub scout meeting on Tuesday night, I didn't even have a design in my head! ACK! So, the computer won out for sheer speediness. I did stamp one part and color that. Can't not stamp, right? Finally at the end I cranked up the laminator and laminated them for good measure. Have you seen how hard kids are on their bookmarks?

I printed a cute poem I found on the net about first graders:

I thought the poem was cute! It reads:

Now That I Can Read

I used to need somebody

To sit and read to me.

I'd look at every page they read

and listen carefully.

But now that I'm in 1st grade,

I'm filling up a shelf

with stories, poems, and other books

That I can read myself.

How are your holidays going? I think I've finished the shopping except for one inlaw, which my DH will take care of. I pretty much ordered everything online this year. I signed up my son's school as a non profit organization that receives money back from online merchants (like the big ones… amazon, ebay, b&n, eddie bauer, etc, etc.) so for every purchase I make up to 37% (yes, 37% – of course depends on where, etc… but the avg is 3%) of my purchase goes back to my school. Isn't that cool? I signed us up a couple of months ago and it's been fun watching the "free" money add up. Anyway, I'm happy to not go out and shop. I *don't* like to shop. Of course the hard part is figuring out what to give! I haven't started my holiday cards yet but they are on *the* list. So, soon. 🙂 I'm well into the *party* part of the season and have a few more to go to this weekend. But pretty much it's smooth sailing from here on out… YIPPEE!